The Fortune Roundup: best of the web – 13 January

It's been a while since our last Fortune Roundup, but we're back with our first one for the New Year. Enjoy!

Smiles, Sales and Leadership
By Art Petty of Management Excellence
By way of personal experience, Art offers some examples of salespeople gone bad, some examples of salespeople gone good, and the consequences of each scenario. For any sales manager, this is a must read. The key takeaway? "One of the unarguable rules of the universe is that happy employees make happy customers."

Making the Right Difference
By Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership Blog
As we covered in September, offering rewards/money as an incentive is not the best way to motivate employees. Citing another article with similar conclusions, Wally offers some practical and actionable thoughts for how managers can contribute to the four core needs (beyond survival) that humans share, each of which can contribute to engagement levels: sustainability (ie, physical environment), emotional security, self-expression and significance. Managers at just about any level can take Wally's advice to positively influence these needs.

Don't Just Punish Them If They Don't Comply
By Tanmay Vora of QAspire Blog
When your people aren't following a process that you've implemented, don't immediately assume they're at fault. Instead, ask yourself WHY it isn't being followed. Usually, Tanmay argues, "it only means that either they don't know how to use the process or the defined process simply doesn't work for them. In either case, it is an opportunity to improve."

Less Courage more Preparation
By Dan Rockwell of Leadership Freak
When managing change, Dan argues that there's an inverse correlation between preparation and courage: "If you're always going around like a lion, perhaps you need more preparation." He offers four straightforward steps that leaders can take to prepare their people for change, thus eliminating the need for courage.

As always, we love to hear your feedback about to this post or any others. And feel free to share it on Twitter or Facebook by using either of the buttons in the upper right corner of this post.